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National Institutes of Natural Sciences

National Institute for Basic Biology

International Cooperation

EMBL - Symposium

" Evolution of Epigenetic Regulation "

Organizers Kunio Shiota (Univ. Tokyo), Juerg Mueller (EMBL Heidelberg), Naoto Ueno (NIBB)
Venue Small Operon, EMBL Heidelberg
Date Mar. 17-19, 2008

 

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 One of the most important questions in biology is how gene activity is temporally and spatially controlled. It has been several decades since we learned that not only DNA sequences but also other aspects of genetic regulation such as DNA/protein modifications influence chromatin remodeling and gene expression and thus the development of a variety of organisms. Epigenetic regulation involving methylation and acetylation of DNA or histone protein appears to be evolutionary conserved among species. However, it also seems that each organism evolves its own mechanism of epigenetic regulation of gene activity as shown by the fact that bacteria such as E. coli, yeast, the nematode, and the fruit fly lack DNA methylation. As organizers, Jurg Muller (EMBL), Kunio Shiota (Univ. Tokyo), and Shigeru Iida (NIBB) arranged this meeting in order to exchange the latest information on transcriptional regulation and remodeling of chromatin structure, regulation of cell differentiation, genomic imprinting, and so on. The sessions enabled discussion about both epigenetic regulation at different levels as well as the evolutional conservation of the epigenetic mechanism. As a result, species-specific mechanisms were highlighted through a series of presentations with a variety of organisms from yeast, plants, arthropods, to mammals. In addition, this meeting emphasized that genome-wide approaches to understanding the epigenetic state of the whole genome is important. We thank Drs. David Lane and Shigeru Iida for their stimulating plenary lectures.

Program
March 17 (Mon)
08:50-09:00 Opening Remarks
09:00-09:40 Allshire, Robin (Welcome trust, U. of Edinburgh) 
"RNAi-Directed Heterochromatin and Centromere Function"
09:40-10:20 Nakayama, Jun-ichi (RIKEN, CDB) 
"Distinct functions of two HP1 proteins are required for heterochromatin assembly in fission yeast"
10:20-10:40 Coffee Break
10:40-11:20 Hirose, Susumu (National Institute of Genetics)
"Three quarter century since the discovery of position effect variegation"
11:20-12:00 Mueller, Juerg (EMBL) 
"Transcriptional control by the Polycomb/trithorax system"
12:00-12:40 Akhtar, Asifa (EMBL) 
"Co-transcriptional recruitment of the dosage compensation complex to X linked target genes"
12:40-13:40 Lunch
13:40-15:00 POSTER SESSION
15:00-16:00 Plenary 1: Reinberg, Danny (HHMI at NYU School of Medicine)
"Chromatin and its impact on gene expression and cellular memory"
16:00-16:20 Coffee Break
16:20-17:00 Mueller, Christoph (EMBL)
"Structural insights into chromatin targeting and remodeling"
17:00-17:40 Ladurner, Andreas (EMBL)
"Alternative splicing of histone macroH2A reveals proliferative plasticity and imparts signaling functions to human chromatin"
17:40-18:20 Shinkai, Yoichi (Institute for Virus Res., Kyoto U.)
"Epigenetic Gene Silencing Mechanisms of the G9a/GLP Histone Methyltransferase Complex"
18:20-20:30 Banquet Dinner
March 18 (Tue)
09:00-09:40 Stancheva, Irina (University of Edinburgh) 
"Recognition of methylated DNA by MBD family proteins"
09:40-10:20 Shiota, Kunio (University of Tokyo) 
"Evolution of Epigenetic Regulation with DNA Methylation System"
10:20-10:40 Coffee Break
10:40-11:00 Imamura, Takuya (Kyoto University) 
"Functional alteration of rodent brain by noncoding RNA for nuclear sex steroid receptor genes"
11:00-11:20 Hamada, Kyoko (RIKEN, CDB) 
"Analysis of sites and functions of mouse HP1a phosphorylation"
11:20-12:00 Matsui, Yasuhisa (Tohoku University) 
"Epigenetic regulation of germ cell-specific gene expression"
12:00-12:40 Paszkowski, Jerzy (Universite de Geneva) 
"Backup system for epigenetic regulation in vascular plants"
12:40-13:40 Lunch
13:40-15:00 POSTER SESSION
15:00-16:00 Plenary 2: Iida, Shigeru (NIBB) 
"Epigenetic Gene Regulation in the Japanese Morning Glory and Rice"
16:00-16:20 Coffee Break
16:20-17:00 Kakutani, Tetsuji (National Institute of Genetics) 
"Genetics of DNA methylation in the BONSAI locus"
17:00-17:40 Mosher, Becky (The Sainsbury Laboratory) 
"PolIV-dependent siRNAs in Arabidopsis"
18:00-20:30 Dining out in Heidelberg
March 19 (Wed)
09:00-09:20 Ohgane, Jun (University of Tokyo) 
"Locus-dependent DNA methylation changes in Sirt1 deficient mouse ES cells"
09:20-09:40 Tanaka, Satoshi (University of Tokyo) 
"Epigenetic change during trophoblast differentiation"
09:40-10:20 Ishino, Fumitoshi (Tokyo Med. & Dent. University) 
"Evolution of genomic imprinting and placentation in mammals by retrotransposons"
10:20-11:00 Sasaki, Hiroyuki (National Institute of Genetics) 
"Endogenous siRNAs derived from naturally formed dsRNAs regulate coding-transcripts and retrotransposons in mouse oocytes"
11:00-11:20 Coffee Break
11:20-12:20 Round table discussion
12:20-12:30 Closing Remarks